Splashes Locomotive.

Anything -- air, land, sea -- whose purpose is to haul any sort of cargo, to include people.
This GB runs 17th Feb through 31st March and your host is Old_Tonto.
User avatar
DavidWomby
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 11709
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 8:09 pm
Location: Florida, USA

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by DavidWomby »

Nice details on those moulds. Are those wipers moulded on the windscreen?

David
User avatar
iggie
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 23360
Joined: July 31st, 2013, 11:04 am
Location: North Somercotes, Lincolnshire
Contact:

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by iggie »

Liking the lighting! Where do you get the led units from? Would they run off a couple of AAA batteries?
Best wishes

Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
User avatar
splash
Senior Service Rotorhead
Posts: 13828
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 11:02 am
Location: Somerset England

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by splash »

dwomby wrote:Nice details on those moulds. Are those wipers moulded on the windscreen?
Yes the windscreen and lights are a one piece moulding that includes the wipers
iggie wrote:Liking the lighting! Where do you get the led units from? Would they run off a couple of AAA batteries?
The ultra bright white LED's come on a long strip that runs off a 12v power supply. The strip is made up of sets of 3 LED's in series with a resistor, what I have done is cut out the individual LED's and solder lacquered copper wire to the exposed contacts, once I work out how many LED's I will use individually or in series and what voltage I finish up with I can work out what resistors I will need to use.

As for running the LED's off AAA batteries, they need 3v each but there is a simple ingenious little circuit called a Joule thief that enables you to run an LED on 1 AA Battery that is flat :shock: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_thief

Image
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
ShaunW
NOT the sheep
Posts: 26118
Joined: November 26th, 2011, 6:11 pm
Location: Pontefract West Yorkshire

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by ShaunW »

Great stuff Alan, this is really interesting. From your description of the electronics of modern model railways, things have certainly changed since I last dabbled as a teenager in the late 70's. I'm used to more of a James May scenario with little motors that have "brushes" and track side transformers with a single rotary control for the speed!
Doing - Tamiya 1/35th Universal Carrier.

Work is the curse of the modelling classes!
IPMS#12300
User avatar
iggie
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 23360
Joined: July 31st, 2013, 11:04 am
Location: North Somercotes, Lincolnshire
Contact:

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by iggie »

splash wrote:
iggie wrote:Liking the lighting! Where do you get the led units from? Would they run off a couple of AAA batteries?
The ultra bright white LED's come on a long strip that runs off a 12v power supply. The strip is made up of sets of 3 LED's in series with a resistor, what I have done is cut out the individual LED's and solder lacquered copper wire to the exposed contacts, once I work out how many LED's I will use individually or in series and what voltage I finish up with I can work out what resistors I will need to use.

As for running the LED's off AAA batteries, they need 3v each but there is a simple ingenious little circuit called a Joule thief that enables you to run an LED on 1 AA Battery that is flat :shock: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_thief
Ha, I have some of that LED tape around somewhere....I sense an experiment coming up! :-D
Best wishes

Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
User avatar
splash
Senior Service Rotorhead
Posts: 13828
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 11:02 am
Location: Somerset England

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by splash »

It looks like my mad dabble with electricery is contagious, iggie if you need a strip of these LED's to play with just PM me your address and I will send you a strip.

Regards Splash
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
User avatar
splash
Senior Service Rotorhead
Posts: 13828
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 11:02 am
Location: Somerset England

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by splash »

I'm going slightly overboard with the electronics, the simplest option would be to use the dcc supplied 18v AC current and simply add resistors, but as I'm still learning about electronics I like to over complicated as practice :shock:

Having now tested my AC/DC converter using power from the model railways controler I'm getting 17v DC to use for the LED's, I could have just soldered the resistors in line but have gone for using a small circuit board to mount the resistors on just to tidy it all up.

Image

Image
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
User avatar
iggie
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 23360
Joined: July 31st, 2013, 11:04 am
Location: North Somercotes, Lincolnshire
Contact:

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by iggie »

splash wrote:It looks like my mad dabble with electricery is contagious, iggie if you need a strip of these LED's to play with just PM me your address and I will send you a strip.

Regards Splash
Thanks for the offer Alan but I already have the tape, I'll need to have a play with my soldering iron and a battery. I love the joule thief idea, that may come in handy for the boat at some point :grin:
Best wishes

Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
User avatar
splash
Senior Service Rotorhead
Posts: 13828
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 11:02 am
Location: Somerset England

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by splash »

The rear ends lights have now been sorted and tested using the train sets power supply.

Image

Image
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
User avatar
Old_Tonto
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 8049
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 7:41 pm
Location: Middlesbrough, Peoples Republic of Teesside.

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by Old_Tonto »

Let there be light. :lol:

Looks really cool Splash.
2023 - A:0 B:0 C:0
Current Projects:
East German Air Force (1956-90)
South African Air Force (1958-93)
User avatar
splash
Senior Service Rotorhead
Posts: 13828
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 11:02 am
Location: Somerset England

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by splash »

Old_Tonto wrote:Let there be light. :lol:

Looks really cool Splash.
The problem was it was not running cool, I had calculated the current at 20mA per LED I should have used 10mA , easily fixed with a swap to bigger resistors. It's now running cool and not quite as bright.
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
User avatar
splash
Senior Service Rotorhead
Posts: 13828
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 11:02 am
Location: Somerset England

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by splash »

All the electronics have been sorted so it's now time to carry on with the build.

Image

Image
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
User avatar
JohnRatzenberger
Why is he so confused ?
Posts: 15708
Joined: April 5th, 2011, 3:42 pm
Location: Living on a sandbar - Nags Head, NC.

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

That's great work, Alan. I envy your ease with the electronics - I can handle the very basics but have to sit with a book on anything else and never seem to retain what I learn. It was better long ago when we had Radio Shack stores with drawers of components and I could go in fish around until I came up with the needed parts -- it isn't the same online.

So, the light at the end of the tunnel will be .... your oncoming train :)
John Ratzenberger :???:
It's my model and I'll do what I want with it.
User avatar
splash
Senior Service Rotorhead
Posts: 13828
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 11:02 am
Location: Somerset England

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by splash »

jRatz wrote:That's great work, Alan. I envy your ease with the electronics - I can handle the very basics but have to sit with a book on anything else and never seem to retain what I learn. It was better long ago when we had Radio Shack stores with drawers of components and I could go in fish around until I came up with the needed parts -- it isn't the same online
I'm only at ease with low voltage projects like this, I still have a steep learning curve and find rellitivlly easy projects like these make the understanding of how it all work a lot easier. Like you I keep notes in a small book and keep referring to it.

We have a local Maplins that is similar to Radio Shack but I find the components are so cheap on eBay from UK suppliers that I'm happy to wait the three or four days they take to arrive.
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
User avatar
splash
Senior Service Rotorhead
Posts: 13828
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 11:02 am
Location: Somerset England

Re: Splashes Locomotive.

Post by splash »

Now the electronics are sorted it's time to button it up, progress should now be quicker.

Image
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
Locked

Return to “Cargo Haulers”